NEWSPAPER ARTICLES:

COLUMBIANS SEEK RETURN OF STONE STATUES
A petition targets artifacts sent to Germany after WWI
By Chris Kraul.  Los Angeles Times, December 28, 2012.

"Nearly a century ago, Konrad Preuss did pioneering work in Columbia's most important archaeological zone, called San Agustin.  But the German archaeologist also took 35 stone statues back to Germany, and now residents of the southern Columbian region where he worked have mounted a campaign to get them back..."

For more on this story, please go to the direct link:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-colombia-statues-20121228,0,7831131.story


TAIWAN RITUAL HONORS LOST TRIBE OF 'SMALL PEOPLE'
Dancing and feasts are meant to thank the vanquished group for its farming wisdom
By Ralph Jennings.  Los Angeles Times, January 2, 2013

..."About 600 people performed the exhausting ritual last weekend that honors a pygmy-like people, skin a dark as those from equatorial Africa, who Chu's own tribe admits to exterminating in battle between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago..."

For more on this story, please go to the direct link:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-taiwan-pygmies-20130102,0,1662679.story


STUDY EXAMINES ABORIGINES' HERITAGE
Research suggests the native Australians weren't genetically isolated for as long as previously believed
By Rosie Mestel.  Los Angeles Times, January 15, 2013.

"When modern humans left Africa as far back as 70,000 years ago, they dispersed across the world, reaching Australia 50,000 to 40,000 years ago.  From then until the 18th-century arrival of European colonists, aboriginal Australians did not mix their DNA with anymore else in the world - or so many scientists believed..."

For more on this story, please go to the direct link:
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-india-australia-migration-20130115,0,2393922.story


GETTY STUDIES ITS ANTIQUITIES
The review focuses on the origins of the museum's collection in ancient art in the aftermath of a scandal
By Jason Felch.  Los Angeles Times, January 19, 2013.

"In the wake of a scandal over its acquisition of looted antiquities, the J. Paul Getty Museum is trying to verify the ownership histories of 45,000 antiquities and publish the results in the museum's online collections database..."

For more on this story, please go to the direct link:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-getty-ambers-20130119,0,1165994.story


ANCIENT BUDDHAS, MODERN PERIL
Chinese-led copper mining threatens Afghan monasteries
By Andrew Lawler.  New York Times, December 23, 2012.

When the Taliban blasted the famous Bamiyan Buddhas with artillery and dynamite in March 2001, leaders of many faiths and countries denounced the destruction as an act of cultural terrorism.  But today, with the encouragement of the American government, Chinese engineers are preparing a similar act of desecration in Afghanistan: the demolition of a vast complex of richly decorated ancient Buddhist monasteries.

For more on this story, please go to the direct link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/opinion/sunday/chinese-led-copper-mining-threatens-afghan-buddhist-monasteries.html?_r=0

NEW MUSEUM GALLERY OF INDO-PACIFIC ART

JUST OPENED:
THE KUBLER - THOMPSON GALLERY OF INDO-PACIFIC ART
@YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

The long awaited opening of the Kubler - Thompson Gallery of Indo-Pacific Art took place in mid November within the Yale University Art Gallery.  The collection is the promised gift to the university from Yale alumnus Thomas Jaffe of New York.   Mr. Jaffe is a well-known and highly respected collector of Oceanic (or Indo-Pacific) art, with a strong focus on objects from the western Pacific, including the Austronesian cultures of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Formosa (Taiwan).  The gallery takes it name from two of Mr. Jaffe's mentors; Yale professors and art historians, Robert Thompson and the late George Kubler.

His collection, arguably one of the most important assembled from this region, consists primarily of sculptural masterpieces of all sizes from the islands of Borneo, Sulawesi, Sumatra, Flores, and the Moluccas.  Additionally there are rare objects from the Jorai of the Central Highlands of Vietnam, the Paiwan of Formosa Island, the Ifugao of Luzon Island, and the Naga tribes along the border of India and Burma.  

Included in the Indo-Pacific gallery are over four hundred of the finest Indonesia textiles from the Jeff Holmgren and Anita Spertus collection and Indonesian gold jewelry from the Hunter Thompson collection. 

Mr. Jaffe endowed funds for a permanent curatorial position.  Recruited from the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, curator Ruth Barnes will organize rotating installations, direct research, publications, and special exhibitions with loans from other institutions and private collections.

I had the privilege of attending the opening on November 13th.  There are too many fantastic pieces to mention, but a few of my favorites include: a superb collection of ancestral shrine vault doors from the Toraja highlands (Sulawesi), a large Paiwan (Formosa) wood panel, a Jorai (Vietnam) wood sculpture carved wearing a long mask, two Dayak (Borneo) wood baby carriers, a group of Dayak (Borneo) shields, and a pair of Ata Oro Island ancestral figures.  Of great interest are the archaic Dayak (Borneo) sculptures in the collection, several of which were on display.  One of the most important and rarest wood sculptures from Borneo is a bizarre oddity with an elongated thin head, eyes set high, and a ritual cavity on the back of the torso, believed to come from an area near the Sarawak/Kalimantan border area.

This collection is a must see for connoisseurs of non-Western art, especially those interested in the art of the Austronesians, a seafaring culture more than 5000 years old that spread out of Southern China, via Formosa, the Philippines, and Indonesia, with later branches reaching as far east as Easter Island and Hawaii and as far west as Madagascar.

For additional information, please go to the Yale University Art Gallery website: http://artgallery.yale.edu/

Article in Los Angeles Times

CHISELING AWAY A CULTURE
Vandals cut ancient petroglyphs, precious to Paiutes, off cliffs at Volcanic Tableland
By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times (11/19/12)

"Ancient hunters and gatherers etched vivid petroglyphs on the cliffs in the Eastern Sierra that withstood winds, flash floods and earthquakes for more than 3,500 years.  Thieves needed only a few hours to cut them down and haul them away..."

For the direct link to article, please go to:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-petroglyphs-theft-20121119,0,6886011.story

NEW BORNEO ART PUBLICATION

Plaited Arts from the Borneo Rainforest
Editor: Bernard Sellato.

"One of the richest basketry traditions in the world, the plaited objects produced in Borneo are created from plant materials gathered in the rainforest and worked by hand using techniques passed from generation to generation.  Unrivaled in their combination of beauty, form, and function, they provide a unique window on the way of life of Borneo's inhabitants."

Available from University of Hawai'i Press.
www.uhpress.hawaii.edu

*A review will be forthcoming...

LOS ANGELES TIMES ARTICLES

Islamist group Ansar Dine destroying historic sites in Mali

By Chris Barton.  Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2012.

For the direct link, please go to:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-al-qaeda-destroying-historic-mali-20120702,0,5182480.story

Easter Island Has Stone Heads, But Little Else.  What Happened? (updated)
By Thomas H. Maugh II.  Los Angeles Times, June 21, 2012.

For the direct link, please go to:
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-stoneheads-easter-island-20120620,0,6247582.story

Cave Art, Older Than Thought, Could Be From Neanderthals
By Thomas H. Maugh II.  Los Angeles Times, June 15, 2012.

For the direct link, please go to:
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-cave-art-20120614,0,7456214.story






Haunted By Ancient Artworks
Some of the pictographs in Horseshoe Canyon are more than 6000 years old. They resonate across time.
By David Kelly.  Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2012.

For the direct link, please go to:
http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-horseshoe-20120610,0,5292119.story